In the research paper of Naomi Sachs, where she explores the possibility of creating a Toolkit to evaluate therapeutic gardens at health care facilities (HCFs) that provide access to nature, which not always meet the needs of the users.
In some cases, so-called “therapeutic gardens” may even be counter-productive: Outdoor spaces designated as ‘healing’ often lack such basic necessities as shade, comfortable seating, places for privacy or enough greenery to even be perceived as a garden. Components that have become popular…are incorporated without consideration for their appropriateness to the site, understanding of their meaning, or potential users’ ability and energy levels.
(Cooper Marcus & Sachs, 2014)
Very few rigorous health care facilities’ (HCF) garden evaluations had been conducted, and only nine had been identified in publications. The methodology and findings from these studies vary significantly depending on the evaluator, instruments used, site, budget, and stakeholders involved. When no single study is strong enough to stand on its own, researchers and designers must rely on what Ulrich and colleagues refer to as “reliable patterns of findings,” where findings from multiple studies converge to demonstrate the strength of the evidence. This approach is not optimal for evidence-based design. Nevertheless, information from HCF garden evaluations has been extremely useful in filling knowledge gaps about why and how people use a particular outdoor space, how these spaces influence users’ physical and psychological wellbeing, and how the spaces affect users’ satisfaction with the facility and the care they receive. Evaluations have also provided answers to specific design questions, which have in turn informed design guidelines.
Here we have chosen to comment three of these design guidelines that have been put together as assessments. But we recommend using them as a help or as a check list. Each Healing Gardens has its own requirements depending on the users. Of the following three assessments, the two first are intended to be used in hospital and care environments and the last is special for old care homes and dementia environments.
The first assessment is called “Garden Assessment tool for evaluators”. It was developed by Naomi Sachs in 2017, and is also referred to as “The healthcare garden evaluation toolkit: a standardized method for evaluation, research, and design of gardens in healthcare facilities”.
Naomi Sachs divides the assessment in five sub chapters that analyze the garden in terms of: Access and visibility; Sense of being away; Nature engagements; Walk and activities; Places to rest.
This assessment is the most advanced of the three and it is helpful to know about landscaping and gardening to extract the full essence.
Author: Naomi A. Sachs, University of Maryland, College Park | UMD, UMCP, University of Maryland College Park · Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture.
The assessment can be downloaded in the following link.
The second assessment is a list of characteristics and elements (plants, furniture, shadows, etc.) that should be present in a therapeutic garden. The person doing the evaluation has to score from 1 to 5 and so judge if this element is present and being successful (completely fulfilling the intention) or present and not working well or absent. This assessment is very general but useful as a tool also during the design of the garden.
The two authors are very experienced and have written many books about therapeutic gardens. The name of the assessment is:COOPER MARCUS AND BARNES THERAPEUTIC GARDEN AUDIT TOOL (CMB AUDIT).
Authors: Clare Cooper Marcus, Professor Emerita of Architecture and Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning
Marni Barnes, LCSW ASLA APATH
The assessment can be downloaded in the following link.
The third assessment was created by Susanne Rodiek. She has been researching outdoor quality since the early 90’s and has been promoting for increasing outdoor usage in residential facilities. Her Senior Outdoor Survey is a very easy and useful tool for anyone. Questions can be answered just by observing and walking around in the garden. The answers are rated from 1 to 7, based on the climate, items, function level of residents, considering what you could expect in this kind of setting.
Author: Susanne Rodiek, Texas A&M University | TAMU · Center for Health Systems & Design
Ph.D.
The assessment can be downloaded in the following link.